


Fist Fights

by feverbeats



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-10
Updated: 2010-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-10 01:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feverbeats/pseuds/feverbeats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been almost two months of this, and he's getting tired of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fist Fights

  
Aberforth Dumbledore is fifteen and angry. Nothing in his life works right at the moment, and it's all his bloody brother's fault. He wants to swear and break things, but instead, it's up to him to be the grown-up. Albus certainly isn't fulfilling his role as head of household, that's for fucking sure. He can't even tear himself away from his new friend for long enough to ask if Aberforth has eaten.

Pretty soon, Aberforth swears, they'll have to eat the damn goats. That would be too bad, as they're his only friends at the moment. Ariana, of course, doesn't count. Siblings aren't something you can choose, but he doesn't mind being stuck with her, not like Albus does.

His hair is the same red as Albus's and that makes him even angrier. Ariana's hair is blonde, different and sudden and unexpected when she was young, and now simply a gentle reminder that they're not all like Albus.

Their father had red hair, too.

He doesn't mind being the stupid one in a brilliant family. His siblings would never call him stupid, of course, but he sometimes feels that way when Albus reels off some complex new spell he's made up out of his head or Ariana offers some surprising flash of insight. Yeah, even his mad sister is smarter than him. He loves her for it, though.

He doesn't love Albus for his brilliance. Someday, he swears, he and Ariana will go somewhere where neither of them will have to be well-spoken or calm ever again.

One day, he comes home bloody-knuckled from another fist-fight with a gang of Muggle boys in town, only to discover that Albus is next door at Gellert's again, leaving Aberforth to cook dinner and take care of Ariana, who's been in the house alone for hours.

Swearing, he grabs a pan, wishing he were old enough to just shoot a quick spell at it to heat it up. He tries to remember if there's actually any food in the house.

"Ariana?" he calls. If anything's happened to her with Albus gone . . .

She wanders into the kitchen after he calls two more times, her feet crossing over one another carefully. "You're home," she says distantly. Her voice always sounds very far away, but then again, so does Albus's. Sometimes Aberforth wonders if they're both mad and he's the only sane one here.

"Albus left," Ariana continues, sitting in the little rocking chair that Aberforth dragged into the kitchen a few weeks ago. "I asked him not to, but Gellert said he needed to show him something."

Aberforth is torn between being pleased that Ariana is fairly coherent today and being furious at Albus for leaving _again_, and only because his bloody—his _friend_ asked him to. He can't help but see Gellert as an enemy, and his own brother is quickly sliding into the same category. Aberforth has never been interested in compromise or shades of grey, dammit, and he's not going to change that just because his brother's lost his mind.

It's been almost two months of this, and he's getting tired of it. He'd drop everything to take care of Ariana, and it isn't fair that Albus doesn't feel the same.

This can't go on much longer. Pretty soon he's going to just break and scream at Albus, and he's absolute _rubbish_ at verbal sparring.

He squares his jaw and tries to feel like an adult. He's awful at talking things through and awful at fixing things, but he's terribly good at starting fights.


End file.
